One small Thing I expect the Government of India to Do for Me and Other Law Abiding Citizens!

Elected peoples' representatives to both the central and the state legislative bodies are supposed to make laws that ensure better governance in any democratic nation.

India being one of the largest democracies in the world and I being a proud Indian senior citizen to be part of this great cultural cradle of the world, it is quite natural for me and others like me to expect my country to be one of the best as far as governance and standard of living are concerned.

Unfortunately, it is not so at present. In my humble opinion, India's problems lie with some attitudinal problems linked to its majority people.

Individually, Indians are good people, but collectively they are a confused lot divided over petty issues and not capable of resolving their problems. When it comes to collective issues, they are also not capable of prioritizing those issues and solving those in a systematic manner.

This confusion reflects in the mindsets of  political leaders, bureaucratic hierarchy, judiciary, the law enforcement agencies, media people and the so called intelligentsia more or less in a similar fashion as that of the general populace.

The best Indian minds think differently than the average Indian group thinking, regardless of the class to which the group belongs!

Hence the best Indian individuals find it to be at odds with the general Indian attitudes. Many such Indians, therefore try to escape from their home land making the average Indian thoughts getting further laced with much stupidity!

Average Indians are too superstitious, too suspicious, too greedy, too selfish, too anxious about the future of their wards, too little bothered about their civic responsibilities and too little reflective of their literacy regardless of their certified educational qualifications!

As a matter of fact, there is no logical need for them to be so. But logic does not seem to go well with the average Indian mind. Thus group common sense keeps declining in India in the present times!

As group common sense keep declining in India, the average ability of the Indian leaders too seems to decline. The Indian law makers do not seem to think of making any laws by application of their minds, but keep passing laws or keep amending existing laws that are dictated to them from invisible sources. This makes the Indian judiciary sluggish and contradictory to themselves while trying to interpret such laws!

Indian democracy is getting complicated every year because the Indian elected leaders no longer apply their minds collectively in making laws that bring out a better governed India. Laws are routinely made that makes existing laws much more complicated and while at the same time laws are not made where it is much needed.

I being a senior citizen who worked in the Indian governmental system for nearly four decades clearly see this erosion in governance where corruption and nepotism keep rising. 

I think the Indian school education system has to change a bit to include much topics that inculcate positive thinking in children and to enhance civic sense which might bring about a change in the collective Indian mindset in another few generations!

This much I wrote to give an indirect background to the title of this blog article. Both the Indian public and the Indian politicians are pretty unconcerned with their own lives that they keep talking about larger issues that have little solutions immediately while pretty problems that could be resolved easily keep pending for years!

Let me highlight one  such small issue that the Indian politicians and bureaucrats could resolve much easily and make citizens lives better. Yes, I want to talk about :

The great Indian Id and address confusion:

With a few hostile or not-so-friendly neighboring nations around, India too is worried about much internal security issues caused by ingress of unwanted or mischievous aliens within the length and breadth of its geography causing much violence within the country.

These intermixing of the aliens withing the Indian populace is being projected as a big security threat to the country in general and the Indian executive keep devising and advising its political masters various ways and means to address this security issue.

Evolution of the making and issue of proper identity documents to genuine citizens, called Id cards, have been a big governance process for the Indian government for the past few decades. Perhaps the Indian government might have spent thousands of crores of rupees and millions of man-hours for this process and yet it remains as an unresolved thing that directly reflects the stupidity that the Indian governmental systems have in common!

Indian citizens are now required to make several id cards from almost all government departments and even commercial establishments that are all stupidly interrelated and digitally linked and yet so stupidly complicated that gives all fraudsters and aliens the much needed opportunity to create as many false id's as may be required while the law abiding citizens are taken for a painful ride!

The original idea of bringing better security has been so foolishly jeopardized by none other than the overzealous or stupid governmental executive machinery!

After much brainstorming the Indian government evolved the final thing in Id documentation called the Aadhar card by spending much from the tax payers money and evolving even a statute and a statutory authority.

Regrettably India has now a unique identity crisis about which I had written long ago and the problem remains without any  solution. 

What is the stupidity here?

The fellows who evolved these systems seem to have forgotten certain basic things that are too obvious if that person has some reasonable common sense!

If an Id document is something original and unique, how could it be based on some other similar document issued earlier by somebody for some other purpose? How would you eliminate an error that has crept in some id card made earlier that was made without much check when you base your new error free id card to something previous?

Normally a document is something truly certified by someone. How do you establish your identity? Either you declare yourself with your official name with any known aliases and declare your date of birth, year of birth, the names of your father and mother, the address of your present living. These basic information could be further fortified by other information such as your bio-metrics, present photograph, your mother tongue, your highest educational qualification, your profession, the address of your parents or your referential relatives living in India if any. If you have any supporting documents in proof of the above, the copies of which could be supplied duly attested by a notary public or any gazetted officer or you yourself in case you are a known citizen with some identifiable credentials.

Since your address is something that keep changing in accordance with your profession, you are the best person to certify your address for all communications that is valid for a few months at least. 

But stupid Indian officials think the other way. They need an address proof document for creating the present address proof! So if I stay now in one place and I have a previous document created with another address somehow, the Indian officialdom does not allow me to change my address!

Can anybody think of any better way to create false documents that have untraceable address information? 

A genuine citizen would not be interested or would not like to create an id document with any erroneous information. However that is not the case with fraudsters or mischief creators. A system that easily allows them to create such falsified document on the basis of other falsified documents serves much of their purpose. 

Imagine the situation and the possibilities in which anyone  can make an Indian  id card such as the so called Aadhar card with un- rectified errors that could have been easily rectified by a simple affidavit or declaration made by a law abiding  citizen but could not because of the stupid system  made by the foolish officials of the Indian governmental system?

My estimate and assessment is that India now has so many id and address documents with its citizens which are all different in one way or the other, all possible due to the haphazard and irresponsible working of various government departments and their officials.

The interesting thing is that you could get a new id card with entirely new id information if the data entry operator from the government side erred, even when you filed all correct information!

All this is happening because, India does not have any law which stipulates the manner in which id or address proof is made or created. All what India has is procedures made by lower end staff in various governmental departments that are all mutually contradictory giving rise to situations that enhance generation of more and more falsified documents!

Let me tell you my own personal experience with regard to the much publicized and  unresolved Aadhar card making and use in this country.

Do you know that Aadhar card is bilingual? Yes, it is. The card has your id and address information in English and the local state language. Suppose you happen to reside in Tamil Nadu at the time of your enrollment for making Aadhar, your card comes with your name and address in English and Tamil even when Tamil is alien to you. So, you cannot possibly know whether the id and address written in your Aadhar card in Tamil is right or wrong. It was created by the person who enrolled you in Tamil Nadu.

Suppose that you now got your residence shifted to Kerala where the language is Malayalam. The authorities allow you to change your address all by yourself online. But the catch is that you or your enrollment agency in Kerala should know Tamil. Because the stupid Aadhar authority does not allow you to change your second language any time later! And imagine the situation when you do not know Malayalam as well. In the Aadhar card there is all possibility that you change to some other person!

I had thought about this and could not come with any logic for this great stupidity of Aadhar authorities! Can you?

Another thing that I observed recently is that Aadhar card is not accepted by many other government authorities as a proof for your age or date of birth even when this is clearly printed on your Aadhar card. Unfortunately, officials in India are find pleasure in violating the rules! They want the people to go to the courts and enhance litigation against the government as much as possible! No wonder then that the courts in India are over loaded!

I think there should be a law that terminates the services of a government servant or group of officials who knowingly or unknowing misrepresent a law to force a citizen or other department to create a court litigation!

There are several such small issues that make Indian governance a nightmare to law abiding citizens and business people.

Many people shy away from starting business ventures in India because they are genuinely scared of Indian officials who could make their lives miserable by stupid interpretation of laws the way they like.

Only those who are willing to fall in line with government officials and their masters can do things smoothly in India.

And that is the curse of India!

No wonder then that India is perceived as corrupt to the core!

No wonder then that employment opportunities do not rise in this country.

I earnestly hope some of my concerned country men should read this and respond instead of being walking dead bodies of India! 

Can I hope?